At 5am on Wednesday, 18th January, Israeli bulldozers and hundreds of fully-armed Israeli police entered the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev region of Israel to carry out evictions and demolitions. Israeli aggression was reported with tear gas, sponge-tipped bullets, and live ammunition fired. Two people were killed –Erez Levy a member of the Israeli police and Yaqub Musa Abu Qi’an, a teacher and resident of Umm al-Hiran. Several others were wounded including Knesset member Ayman Odeh leader of the Israeli Arab Joint List.

Your help is needed urgently and we ask you to write to your MP (or Senator if in the US) about this incident with the request to contact the FCO. Below please find an example of a letter to use when contacting your MP.

SAMPLE LETTER FOR MP

[Your Address]

Dear Mr/Ms [MP’s name],

I am writing to you regarding home demolitions today, 18th January, in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev region of Israel. The violence there is yet another demonstration that Israel is not serious about providing equal rights to its citizens who are not Jewish.

The residents of Umm Al-Hiran were originally the inhabitants of the village of Khirbet Zubaleh, who were moved by Israeli military order in 1956 to the land where Umm al-Hiran currently stands. Despite being forced onto this land by the Israeli state, the village remained officially unrecognised — as is the case with roughly half of all Bedouin villages — and as it was constructed on Israeli state land, the Israeli government claims it has the legal right to destroy it. The residents of Umm Al-Hiran recently lost their 13-year long legal battle over their claim to this land granted them by the Israeli government, a verdict they deem unfair.

The purpose of today’s demolitions was to evict more of its 500 residents, including many children and a 100-year-old man Musa Hussien Abu Al Qian. Israel wants to build a new town called “Hiran” for religious Jewish residents in its place. The Bedouin residents of Umm Al-Hiran have repeatedly expressed their willingness to accept new Jewish neighbours in a location next to them. Much of the Negev desert is uninhabited and therefore a new developments could be built anywhere on this vast stretch of empty land. The Israeli state plans to move the residents of Umm Al-Hiran to the Bedouin towns of Hura or Rahat, where due to lack of space they will be forced to lose their rural way of life and sources of income, such as cattle grazing. Furthermore, the residents of Hura and Rahat have expressed their concerns at the addition of hundreds of new residents into their communities due a severe shortage of land, exemplified by a waiting list of 2000 for 140 available plots in Hura.

Today hundreds of fully-armed police officers entered Umm Al-Hiran. They fired tear gas, sponge-tipped bullets, and live ammunition. In addition to the demolitions, two people were killed – one Israeli member of the police and one Palestinian resident of Umm al-Hiran and several others were wounded. Among those wounded was a Knesset member Ayman Odeh leader of the Israeli Arab Joint List.

On 23rd November 2016, the Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood, called for renewed negotiations where, “Israeli authorities and [the] Bedouin community work together to find a solution that meets the needs and respects the rights of the people affected”. The Bedouins of Umm Al-Hiran have repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to speak with Israeli authorities and to live alongside Jewish Israelis. However it is clear that the motivation behind today’s demolition is purely political and that Israel is not honest in its talk of co-existence.

I urge you to contact Tobias Ellwood at the Foreign Office to request that our government make an immediate representation to Israel to stop the continued oppression of non-Jewish residents of Israel and specifically the evictions and demolitions in Umm Al-Hiran.

Over the years ICAHD UK has distributed information about the threat to Umm Al-Hiran. We also provided platforms at public meetings for Khalil Al-Amour from Al-Sira, representing Adalah, and for Haia Noach from the Negev Coexistence Forum whom we also took for briefings at the FCO Recently we have highlighted information and a petition sent out by Haqal – Jews and Arabs in Defence of Human Rights.

Today, May 4 2015, the Land Defense Coalition and the Jordan Valley Solidarity has submitted a letter to the EU Commission and diplomatic missions of member states asking for urgent action and denouncing the military exercises that Israel is holding to an unprecedented length and extent in the Jordan Valley occupied Palestinian territory.

The organizations ask for clear actions, including the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the immediate exclusion of Israeli military and security companies from the EU funding cycle Horizon2020. Read the full text of the letter in the following.

We are asking all our international friends to put pressure on your elected representatives to put pressure on the Occupation Forces to STOP THE MILITARY TRAINING in the Jordan Valley

Jordan Valley Solidarity, May 4 2015

To: The Office of the European Union Representative West Bank and Gaza Strip,

Diplomatic missions of EU member states

Subject: Urgent action against large scale military training in the Jordan Valley

Dear sir/madam,

We are writing to ask you to a) urgently intervene through the appropriate diplomatic channels with the Israeli authorities to ensure an immediate stop of the military training exercises Israel is holding in the Jordan Valley to an unprecedented extent and length since yesterday, Sunday May 3, until likely Thursday, May 7, b) pressure for an end to all Israeli military training in Palestinian occupied territory and the revocation of the military zones and firing zones c) take effective steps to stop Israel’s ongoing population transfer in Area C, including the exclusion of all Israeli military and security companies from funding within the framework of Horizon2020 and the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

Since yesterday, Sunday May 3, in the area of Twayyel, in the Aqraba area of the Jordan Valley, a heavy military exercise has started which, according to witnesses, includes over 100 military vehicles, including helicopters and other heavy military equipment. The population had not been informed but alerted by the construction of a military camp in the area roughly a week ago and suffers currently threats to their lives, properties and livelihoods.

In a large area around the Hamra checkpoint, which includes Humsa Fouqa, Khirbet Ibziq, al Borj, al Meeta and al Maleh areas and Ras ar Ahmar, last Thursday, April 30, Israeli military forces addressed the Bedouin and farming communities living there forcing them to sign papers that obliged them to leave the region starting from today Monday 4th of May to Thursday 7th of May, as the army intends to conduct training. These communities comprise 47 extended families. Since this morning, heavy explosions are being heard that are similar to another military training in the same area of Humsa Fouqa, held on April 28. That military exercise had resulted in the destruction of 3,000 to 4,000 dunams of crops and trees after the shootings and ammunitions of the Israeli army started fire on the land and Palestinian firefighter crews were prevented from reaching the area.

While some of the families are currently leaving the area, part of the population in the area around the Hamra checkpoint has decided to stay in the area during the training and is risking immediate threat to their lives. All of the affected population is deeply concerned about their livelihoods. Their harvest may be destroyed even further through fires ignited during the military training and abandoning or moving their livestock during the current lambing season would risk the survival of large part of the animals. The communities further fear for their property, including homes, animal sheds and water storage may be damaged.

Military trainings in the Jordan Valley have increased dramatically since 2012 and are part and parcel of Israel's systematic and forced transfer of the Palestinian population from the Area C, which is implemented through a variety of means including demolitions, denial of access to water, movement and access restrictions. Bedouin communities as the above are to be forcibly transferred in the so-called 'relocation zones' currently under construction in the area of Abu Dis and in planning around Jericho. In May 2014, Col. Einav Shalev, operations officer of the Central Command told the subcommittee of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that "the goal of preventing illegal construction is one of the main reasons the Israel Defense Forces has recently increased its training in the Jordan Valley". Once people are transferred, the area is ready to be annexed and Palestinians will be left with some 13% of their historic homeland, reduced to ghettos and Bantustans.

The equipment used during these operations is provided partially by Israeli military companies, which find in the military trainings held in the West Bank another opportunity to further develop and showcase their technology.

According to UN OCHA, approximately 18% of the West Bank has been designated permanently as a closed military zone for training, or “firing zone”. This is roughly the same amount of the West Bank under full Palestinian authority (Area A, 17.7%). Some 5,000 Palestinians reside in the firing zones. They live in 38 communities and are mostly Bedouin tribes that have been expelled to this area during the ethnic cleansing of the Naqab (Negev) from 1948-52. The declaration of military firing zones comes together with a series of human rights violations and grave breaches of Israel’s obligations under international law, including the right to life, adequate housing, access to water and sanitation as well Israel’s obligation to protect the occupied population and not to alter the demographic composition of the area it holds occupied.

The International Criminal Court has defined the forcible and arbitrary transfer of population as a crime against humanity when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, such as is the case of Israel’s policies against the Palestinian people. The crime of forcible transfer of populations can be carried out through a large range of 'coercive pressures' forcing people to flee their homes. Displacement of individuals when undertaken on discriminatory grounds may amount to persecution. Transfer of population “designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups” as well as “the deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of such a group or groups, in particular by denying to members of a racial group or groups basic human rights and freedoms, including [...] the right to freedom of movement and residence” is a core part of the policies that constitute the crime of apartheid.

Already in 2011, EU Heads of Mission report on Area C and Palestinian State-Building has underlined that Israeli policies in Area C “result in forced transfer of the native population” and pointed out that the Israeli practice of maintaining over decades closed military and ‘firing zones’ is illegal and has grave consequences for the population. In 2012, the UN Secretary-General stated that the implementation of the proposed 'relocation' would amount to individual and mass forcible transfers and forced evictions, prohibited under international humanitarian law and human rights law. The 2012 Council conclusions on the Middle East process express “deep concern about developments on the ground which threaten to make a two-state solution impossible”, in particular Israeli policies of forced transfer in Area C. The resolution of the 2012 EU parliament on policy on the West Bank and Jerusalem “calls on the Council and the Commission to continue to address these issues at all levels in the EU's bilateral relations with Israel and the Palestinian Authority; stresses that Israel's commitment to respect its obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law towards the Palestinian population must be taken into full consideration in the EU's bilateral relations with the country”. The policy briefing on Area C by the policy department the director-general for external relations of the EU concludes that “nothing of substance has been accomplished to implement the minimal recommendations set out by the EU's 2011 report on Area C. While the EU has expressed its concern about the state of affairs, decisive effective action is long overdue”, including the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

In 1967 there were 350,000 Palestinians living in what is now Area C. Today there are only 150,000 left. Some Israeli politicians consider this number “acceptable to integrate into the Jewish state”. The population transfer is a de facto annexation making any formal steps redundant. The EU cannot wait any longer before taking strong responses and effective measures to be taken, including:

Intervening immediately to stop the military training.

Pressuring Israel to revoke all military orders establishing ‘closed military zones’ and ‘firing zones’, which are in their practice in contravention of international law and a mechanism of forced population transfer.

Excluding immediately Israeli military and security companies from funding within the framework of Horizon2020.

Suspending immediately the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

The Land Defense Coalition Jordan Valley Solidarity

Land Defence Coalition member organizations:

The Popular Council to Protect the Jordan Valley

Stop the Wall Campaign

Palestinian Farmers Union

Palestinian New Federation of Trade Unions

Palestine Youth Forum

Association for Farmers’ Rights and for the Preservation of the Environment

Please email/write/phone your MP now and ask them to write to David Cameron urgently on your behalf to raise the following points:

· Six months since the start of the Gaza war, which resulted in massive destruction and hardship, but the UK government appears not to be taking any steps to bring the blockade of Gaza to a complete and immediate end. Palestinians are dying as a result.

· Israel and the UK must both uphold UN Security Council Resolution 1860 on Gaza access which obliges Israel to open Gaza’s port, and facilitate free movement of goods and people between Gaza and the West Bank, and obliges the UK governments to provide arrangements and guarantees to bring this about. The UK is failing to do this, let alone step in and help negotiate a ceasefire and access agreement before another war starts. The UK is quick to act when other countries breach UN Security Council resolutions on humanitarian access, but on Gaza it has failed to go to the Security Council.

· Palestinians in Gaza remain homeless, struggle to find access to clean water, are jobless and farmers and fishing boats are regularly being shot at by Israeli government to go about their trade. Over 700,000 truckloads of construction materials are needed to rebuild the homes and schools the population need but only a few hundred truckloads were allowed over the past six months. The blockade is not about security. Israel demolished the Karni crossing which used sophisticated x-ray technology with a capacity to allow nearly a thousand truckloads of goods every day to transit Gaza. Why should Palestinians wait decades to rebuild their homes?

· MPs and the UK government received more correspondence on the Gaza than any other international issue, and MPs have been very vocal, yet ministers have been silent on Gaza for months and I cannot find any information about UK efforts to end the blockade.

Urge the PM to take the following urgent steps:

- urgently act to end Israel’s blockade

- support genuine Palestinian reconciliation and not condition the delivery of assistance on political actions ensuring aid reaches all civilians in need without discrimination.

- end all arms trade with Israel

- seek compensation from Israel for damage they have caused to UK and EU funded aid projects

“WHAT? Have they gone mad?” Was practically the unanimous reaction to the raid of the Israeli army into our offices on the 22nd of June at 4:00 AM and confiscating practically all the computers in the company. Incidentally, it was my reaction too when I found our through a phone call from the office building doorman last Sunday morning; our day off. Please read the attached press release that we distributed a few days after the incident.

I was a fool to think that sitting in downtown Ramallah, having lead a non-violent life-style approach, both personally and in my business, being liberal and secular, would make me beyond the reach of direct contact, much less a confrontation, with the Israeli army. What happened on the 22nd of June was a clear reminder that the occupation of Palestine is real and the open prison we are living in is exactly that; a prison.

The fact that you are reading this message which announces a new edition of This Week in Palestine, the July 2014 edition, is a message in itself. A good friend of mine just posted something wise Robert Frost had said about summing up everything he had learned from life in three words; it goes on.

The current (threatening) July 2014 issue, the “Where to Go” issue, takes our readers on trips to various Palestinian destinations to explore their beauty and charm. We’ve included lots of images to make the edition more attractive. I do hope you will enjoy reading it.

To remind you, “Social Media in Palestine” is our theme for the upcoming August 2014 issue, and that of September 2014 issue is “An Eye on Science.. As always, if you feel you can contribute to any of the mentioned issues, by all means, do contact us. Finally, the theme of our upcoming October 2014 issue is “Habitat in Palestine.”

Before ending I would like to pay tribute to our exiting content editor, Dr. Riyam Kafri-AbuLaban who truly did a marvelous job throughout being part of the editorial team, and has added tremendous value to each edition she has worked on. Actually, Riyam will not leave us totally; she will still be responsible for our new permanent section TWIP’s Kitchen since cooking is something she loves to do apart from teaching Organic Chemistry! Equally, I would like to welcome Ahmad Damen, a bright young director of the two documentaries Forbidden Pilgrimageand The Red Stone, a musician, and now the new TWIP’s content editor.

With the scorching heat, today is the first day of the holy month of Ramadan. I wish all a merciful, and a peaceful month. Ramadan is a reminder to us all to search our souls to become better human beings in being kind, and thoughtful to others whom we have done them wrong by being unjust.

This was following news from the Negev Forum for Coexistence, alerting the international community to Israel's demolitions in Al Arakib this morning. According to the Negev Forum, Israeli Forces began demolishing water tanksandstructures around the cemetery.

The village of Al Arakib has already been destroyed more than 60 times since July 2010, and each time the villagers have rebuilt their homes, determined to stay on their ancestral lands, despite the physical and emotional hardships. The remaining residents had already received eviction orders stating that by 13th July they must leave the village or be evicted by force. The orders include the dead and people who have left the village. The residents of Al Arakib lay claims to the lands on which their village is built and from which they were first evicted after the establishment of theIsraeli state in the fifties. Their land claims are still before the courts and have yet to be decided.

During the last four years the non-violent resistance of Al Arakib has become a symbol of the Arab-Bedouin struggle against Israeli government plans to forcibly concentrate its Bedouin citizens in government “planned” townships and to demolish 35 so-called unrecognised villages, whose population numbers in the thousands.

Sarah Colborne, Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign said:

"We are calling on the Foreign Secretary to immediatelytellthe IsraeliAmbassadorthat the demolitionsmust be stopped.It is not enough for theUK Governmentto simply express its displeasure. The government must impose sanctions upon Israel for its violations of international law.Only action will work."

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) aims to raise public awareness about the Israeli occupation and the struggle of the Palestinian people. PSC seeks to apply pressure on both the British and Israeli governments into bring their policies in line with international law. PSC is an independent, non-governmental and non-party political organisation with members from communities across the UK. Join PSC today!Join: www.palestinecampaign.org/join Donate: www.palestinecampaign.org/donate Palestine Solidarity Campaign Box BM PSA London WC1N 3XXTel: 020 7700 6192 Fax: 020 7609 7779Email: info@palestinecampaign.org Web: www.palestinecampaign.org